Virtual pets can learn just like babies

"SIT," says the man. The dog tilts its head but does nothing. "Sit," the man repeats.

The dog lies down. "No!" the man admonishes.

Then, unable to get the dog to sit, the man decides to teach it by example. He sits down himself.

"I'm sitting. Try sitting," he says. The dog cocks its head attentively, folds its hind legs under its body and sits. "Good!" says the man.

No, it's not a rather bizarre way to teach your pet new tricks. It is a demonstration a synthetic character in a virtual world being controlled by an autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) program, which will be released to inhabitants of virtual worlds like Second Life later this year.

Novamente, a company in Washington DC which built the AI program that controls the dog, says that the demonstration is a foretaste not just of future virtual pets but of computer ...

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